My story

Worldknown biblical teacher, author of many books eg.: Blessing or Curse: You Can Choose, Marriage Covenant, Entering the Presence of God, Husbands and Fathers, Entering the Presence of God and many others. More inormation concerning his ministrie on web page derekprince.com.

During my service with the British army in World War II, I lay sick with a chronic skin infection for 12 months on end in a military hospital in Egypt.

Month by month I became more and more convinced that, in that hot desert climate, the doctors did not have the means to heal me.

Having recently become a Christian and been baptized in the Holy Spirit, I had a real, personal relationship with God. I felt that somehow He must have the answer to my problem-but I did not know how to find it.

Over and over again I said to myself, “I know that if I had faith, God would heal me.” But then I always added, “But I don't have faith.” Each time I said that, I found myself in what John Bunyan calls “the slough of despond”- the dark, lonely, valley of despair. One day, however, a brilliant ray of light pierced the darkness. Propped up on my pillows in the bed, I held the King James Version of the Bible open across my knees. My eye was suddenly arrested I laid hold of one simple fact: “Faith cometh!” by Romans 10:17: “So then faith cometh by nearing, and hearing by the world of god.” If I did not have faith, I could get it!

But how does faith come? I read the verse again, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” I had already accepted the Bible as the word of God. So the source of faith was right there in my hands. But what was meant by “hearing?” How could I “hear” what the Bible had to say to me?

I determined to go back to the beginning of the Bible and read it right through, book by book in order. At the same time I armed myself with a blue pencil, intending to underline in blue every scripture that dealt with the following themes: healing; health; physical strength; long life. At times the going was not easy, but I persevered. I was surprised at how often I neede to use my blue pencil.

After about two months I had reached the book of Proverbs. There, in the fourth chapter, I found three consecutive verses that required my blue pencil: „(20) My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. (21) Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart, (22) For they are life unto those that find them, and heath to all their flesh(Proverbs 4:20-22, KJV)

As I was underlining these words, their meaning began to open up to me. “My son… “ It was my Father, God, speaking directly to me, His child. The message was very personal. God was telling me what His “words” and His “sayings” could be to me-“health to all my flesh.” How could God promise me more for my physical body than that? “Health” and “sickness” were opposites; each excluded the other. If I could have health in “all my flesh”-my whole physical body-then there would be no room for sickness in it anywhere.

I noticed that in the margin of my Bible there was an alternative translation for “health.” It was “medicine.” Could God's “words” and “sayings” really be “ medicine” for the healing of my whole body? After much inward debate, I determined to put it to the test.

At my own request, all my medication was suspended. Then I began to take God's word as my medicine. Since I was a hospital attendant by my military trade, I was familiar with the way people usually took their medicine-“three time daily after meals.” I decided to take Cod's word as my medincine that way.

When I made that decision, God spoke to my mind with words as clear as if I had heard them audibly: “When the doctor gives a person medicine, the directions for taking it are on the bottle. This is my medicine bottle, and the directions are on it. You had better read them.”

Reading the verses carefully through once more, I saw that there were four 'directions' for taking God's “medicine”:

First direction: „attend….” I must give undivided concentrated attention to God's words as I read them.

Second direction: „incline thine ear...” To incline my ear would indicate a humble, teachable attitude. I must lay aside my own prejudices and preconceptions and receive with an open muind what God was saying to me.

Third direction: „let them not depart from thine eyes…” I must keep my eyes focused on God's words. I must not allow them to wander to statements from other, conflicting sources, such as books or articles not based on Scripture.

Fourth direction: „keep them in the midst of thine heart…” Even when the actual words were no longer in front of my eyes, I must keep meditating on them in my heart, thus retaining them at the very source and center of my life.

To describe all that happened in the following months would require almost a book on its own. The army transferred me from Egypt of the Sudan, a land with one of the worst climates in Africa, where temperatures went as high as 127 degrees F. Excessive heat always aggravated my skin condition. Everything in my circumstances was inimical to my healing. Healthy men all around me were actually becoming sick.

Gradually, however, I realized that the fulfillment of God's promises does not depend on external circumstances, but solely on meeting His conditions. So I simply continued to take my “medicine” three times daily.

After each main meal I bowed my head over my open Bible and said, “Lord, you have promised that these words of yours will be medicine to all my flesh. I'm taking them as my medicine now in the name of Jesus!”

No sudden or dramatic change took place. I experienced nothing that I could describe as a “miracle.” But after I had been about three months in the Sudan, I discovered that my “medicine” had made good its claims. I was perfectly well. There was no more sickness anywhere in my body. I had actually and literally received “health to all my flesh.”

Nor was this a case of “mind over matter”-some kind of temporary al illusion that would quickly fade. Thrty-five years have passed since then. With a few minor and brief exceptions, I have continued to enjoy excellent health. Looking back, I realize that, through that period of testing and eventual victory, I made contact with a source of life above the natural level which is still at work in my physical body today today.